Small, Affordable Automatic?

[ckot]

For new watches, you could looks at PMWF's "Sales Corner". They are mainly watches made for the Asian market, and they tend to be smaller.

There are loads of sizes of Sandoz HK, including 31mm Explorer styles:
(sapphire + solid bracelet for $250 shipped to US)
($160)

This Octo is one of the cheapest ETA movement autos you will find, and it is 36mm, but will wear smaller because of the big bezel:

This one is only 34mm:


Borel 36mm:

And Enicar, with a Swiss ETA (brass colored ETA movements are assembled in Asia), sapphire and solid links:

I'm not clear on what is so expensive about vintage; you can pick up a lot of vintage watches on ebay for under $40, even if it needs to be serviced, you are still talking about less than $160 (maybe less if servicing is cheaper where you are). I picked up a nearly perfect 1960's manual wind Enicar a few weeks back that is running great.

[ckot]

I also like the Seiko Rikki Watanabe watches, but at 36mm, they were too small to make my current wish list:

[lycanthropejeff]

This is what I'm sporting tonite... it's on an aftermarket band which arrived from eBay this afternoon. It's not my primary watch, but it gets a lot a use and has stood up to rigorous conditions with out a problem. It's size makes it perfect for a smaller framed fellow like myself and these (or Seiko 5s which are very similar) have a great price tag if you shop around a bit. Also, they have a number of different styles. I really couldn't recommend a watch in this line enough. Lots of bang for the buck.

jtk

[Chris Hughes]

That Enicar is totally cool!

Back to the Seiko 5...

I have this one, and it wears REALLY small on my reasonably small wrists (6.5 or so.) I really think the OP should go try on some small Seiko 5s and see how they wear. The raw measurements often don't tell the whole story.

[J.D.B.]

I have an Orient auto that comes in at 34mm without the crown and 10mm thick in the middle (it tapers down to the bracelet).
Not a bad little watch. Here it is on my 7 1/4 wrist:
Josh

[GeneJockey]

Great suggestions, folks! I'll pass them on to him. In particular, I'll suggest he check out the Orient and Seiko 5 lines.

Regarding why I'm steering him away from vintage - I figured for his first mechanical, he should get something that works out of the box and doesn't need service for years. And because I often depend on his particular skills at work, I don't want to recommend a watch that ends up disappointing him!

Then again, he's willing to spend hours tinkering with a temperamental Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter, so he might just have the right mindset for vintage!

[om-4]

If you decide to go vintage, look up Fortis Trueline or Parfula.

[Chris Hughes]

Vintage is a crap shoot. For one thing, you need to figure the cost of an initial service into the buy-in price. It's never a good idea to buy vintage and not have a service performed, even if the previous owner says he/she had it serviced recently. For another, you're more likely to get a vintage watch that has issues than one that doesn't, even after having it serviced. It's a simple function of the wear associated with age. I think you're right to encourage him to go with a new auto first and then move into vintage pieces at a later date.

[watchman19]

it's totally up to you, but I picked this one from WOW last sunday, $77.00 50mm Dia 20mm bracelet, again totally up to you 21 jewels auto. I liked the design yes some do have comments about Invicta on WUS but wahtever it appealed to me. It was a good deal normally they are about 120-140.00 so for $77.00 it was a bargin:

[AlbertaTime]

These Orients aren't big and they run beautifully. Great detailing, available in lots of colurs, very nicely built and inexpensive . Around $60 if I recall correctly but the movement is very dependable and accurate.





I put 'em on a NATO but they come with a very serviceable bracelet...